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State
Librarian of California,
Susan Hildreth
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Update from the State Librarian
After a
very hectic fall, December was a bit quieter for me. Early in the
month, I was honored to join Yolo County Library staff at their
retirement party for County Librarian Mary Stephens. Mary, my first
“boss” in California, has been a great role model and mentor for me.
After 37 years of dedicated service to Yolo County, she deserves a
relaxing and enjoyable retirement with her new husband Les. On
December 2nd I
attended the grand opening of the Manor Branch in San Leandro. This
light-filled building in a dense, urban setting is a jewel for its
diverse bay area neighborhood. On December 5th, California State
Library (CSL) staff participated in the orientation for new Assembly
members by hosting a lovely lunch in Gillis Hall, the main reading
room in Library and Courts I. Although we did not lobby for library
issues, Special Collections Curator Gary Kurutz provided an
entertaining history of the State Legislature and the CSL.
Mid-month, I traveled to Washington for the December 10th - 11th
National Library Agenda brainstorming. Under the leadership of
American Library Association President Leslie Burger, attendees
represented all types of libraries, library interests, and major
library partners. At the brainstorming, we developed key themes on
library roles and services that libraries can tailor to their
various settings. You can find more information on this topic by
visiting
http://wikis.ala.org/nationallibraryagenda/index.php/Main_Page.
I presented my
quarterly State Librarian webcast on December 12th and I’ve
received excellent feedback from folks statewide. I really enjoy
presenting information on the web that our library community finds
valuable and interesting! If you missed the live webcast, please
check the archived version at
http://infopeople.org/training/webcasts/webcast_data/162/index.html.
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California State Library.
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Just
before the holidays, I attended the December 14th grand opening of
the Fairfield-Cordelia Branch Library in Solano County. This
building was planned for the convenience of the customers and is
in a great location in a suburban commercial center. I had a great
holiday in New York City with my daughters, but I’m sorry to say
we did not have a white Christmas.
My 2007
got off to an exciting start when I had the honor of attending
Governor Schwarzenegger’s inauguration on January 5th.
Unfortunately, because of a holiday skiing accident, the Governor
had to take the stage in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on
crutches. I know that he does not like being seen publicly on
crutches; and, as soon as he walked on stage, his sons ran up and
took charge of the crutches. It was fun to see my San Francisco
“boss,” former Assembly Speaker and Mayor Willie Brown, perform as
master of ceremonies for the event. My “celebrity sightings” that
star-studded day included Tom Arnold and Rob Lowe!
While
attending the American Library Association
Midwinter meeting
in Seattle, my duties as president of the Public Library
Association did not leave me much time to sightsee in the great
host city of Seattle. But I was lucky to go to several
sessions at the
Seattle
Public Library,
a facility that impressed me tremendously. Please be sure to
include a tour of Seattle’s library on your next trip to the
northwest.
In late January
I attended two excellent symposiums in Sacramento. On the 26th the
California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) sponsored
Visions of Change: Academic
Libraries in Transition. I enjoyed
listening to many presenters including R. Bruce Miller, the
founding University Librarian at the University of California
Merced, who, in a talk called, “…what they will be,” (from the
University Library’s motto), gave a first-hand glimpse at the work
involved in launching a new university library. The Visions for
Change speakers showed audience members
that academic libraries face challenges similar to those of public
libraries. On January 30th, the California Arts Council held its
2007 statewide
conference
of arts educators, Reflecting ~ Reframing ~ Responding. At
the conference, I was lucky to hear keynote speaker Dana
Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a
native Californian, and a big library supporter. Gioia has
reinvented the NEA and is making great strides in supporting all
kinds of arts programming in this nation. One can see Gioia’s
efforts on behalf of our libraries in the
Big Read
and other literary initiatives.
I
started off February with a trip to Los Angeles and the opening of
the Harbor Gateway Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Harbor Gateway is a green building that will make a huge
difference in a community that addresses gang violence on a daily
basis. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended the event and remained
through the entire opening ceremonies - he is clearly a great
library supporter!
February
has two holidays for state employees, but I worked on both days!
On February 12th, Lincoln’s Birthday, CSL technology consultant
Rush Brandis and I traveled to San Mateo to meet with
representatives from CENIC, California’s high-speed education
network, and the American Library Association’s Office of
Information Technology Policy. We hope that CENIC may consider
including public libraries in this broadband network and hopefully
we can partner on several demonstration projects to see how that
would work. I was happy to spend February 19th, President’s Day,
at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs attending the SirsiDynix
Executive Institute. The Institute offered a number of exciting
speakers including Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American
Library Project; Helene Blowers, Technology Director from
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Library who developed great Web
2.0 training; and Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix Vice President of
Innovation and a hit speaker at last fall’s California Library
Association Conference.
I had a
great trip to Lompoc on Friday, February 23 and met with the Black
Gold Administrative Council in the morning, and the Lompoc Library
Board of Trustees in the afternoon. I was on hand for the exciting
ribbon cutting on Saturday February 24th at the beautiful library
in Folsom, which has been planned for over 12 years. On February
26th and 27th, the CSL hosted a research team from the American
Library Association Washington office who are investigating
broadband connectivity for public libraries nationally, thanks to
the support of the Gates Foundation. The team is visiting seven
states and California was the first! As I write this column, I am
off to the Public Library Association (PLA) Spring Symposium in
San Jose. This marks the first time the event has left Chicago and
we are proud that PLA chose California as their venue! Have a
great spring.
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